STORY OF JESUS 30
Coming
Again
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Our Saviour is coming again. Before parting with His disciples on the
earth, He Himself gave them the promise of His return.
"Let not your heart be troubled," He said. "In My Father's
house are many mansions: . . . I go to prepare a place for you, And if I go and
prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that
where I am, there ye may be also." John 14:1-3.
He did not leave them in doubt as to the manner of His coming. "The
Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall
He sit upon the throne of His glory: and before Him shall be gathered all
nations." Matthew 25:31, 32.
Carefully He warned them against deception: "If they shall say unto
you, Behold, He is in the desert; go not forth: behold, He is in the secret
chambers; believe it not. For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and
shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be."
Matthew 24:26, 27.
This warning is for us. Today false teachers are saying, "Behold, He
is in the desert," and thousands have gone forth into the desert, hoping to
find Christ.
And thousands who claim to hold communion with the spirits of the dead
are declaring, "Behold, He is in the secret chambers." This is the
very claim that Spiritualism makes.
But Christ says, "Believe it not. For as the lightning cometh out of
the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of
man be."
At Christ's ascension the angels declared to the disciples that He would
"so come in like manner" as they had seen Him go into Heaven. Acts
1:11. He ascended bodily, and they saw Him as He left them and was received by
the cloud. He will return on a great white cloud, and "every eye shall see
Him." Revelation 1:7.
The exact day and hour of His coming has not been revealed. Christ told
His disciples that He Himself could not make known the day or the hour of His
second appearing. But He mentioned certain events by which they might know when
His coming was near.
"There shall be signs," He said, "in the sun, and in the
moon, and in the stars." Luke 21:25. And He speaks still more plainly:
"The sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the
stars shall fall from heaven." Matthew 24:29.
Upon the earth, He said, there shall be "distress of nations, with
perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; men's hearts failing them for fear,
and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth." Luke
21:25, 26.
"And they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven
with power and great glory. And He shall send His angels with a great sound of a
trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one
end of heaven to the other." Matthew 24:30, 31.
The Saviour adds: "Now learn a parable of the fig tree; when his
branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: so
likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at
the doors." Matthew 24:32, 33.
Christ has given signs of His coming. He says that we may know when He is
near, even at the doors. When the trees put forth their leaves in the spring, we
know that summer is near. Just so surely, when the signs appear in the sun and
the moon and the stars, we are to know that Christ's coming is near.
These signs have appeared. On May 19, 1780, the sun was darkened. That
day is known in history as "the dark day." In the eastern part of
North America, so great was the darkness that in many places the people had to
light candles at noonday. And until after midnight the moon, though at its full,
gave no light. Many believed that the day of judgment had come. No satisfactory
reason for the unnatural darkness has ever been given, except the reason found
in the words of Christ. The darkening of the sun and the moon was a sign of His
coming.
November 13, 1833, there was the most wonderful display of falling stars
ever beheld by men. Again thousands believed that the day of judgment had come.
Since that time earthquakes, tempests, tidal waves, pestilence, famine,
and destructions by fire and flood, have multiplied. All these, and
"distress of nations, with perplexity," declare that the Lord's coming
is near.
Of those who beheld these signs He says, "This generation shall not
pass, till all these things be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall
not pass away." Matthew 24:34, 35.
"The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the
voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall
rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with
them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with
the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words." 1 Thessalonians
4:16-18.
Christ is coming, coming with clouds and with great glory. A multitude of
shining angels will attend Him. He will come to raise the dead, and to change
the living saints from glory to glory.
He will come to honor those who have loved Him and kept His commandments,
and to take them to Himself. He has not forgotten them nor His promise.
There will be a relinking of the family chain. When we look upon our
dead, we may think of the morning when the trump of God shall sound, when the
"dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed." 1
Corinthians 15:52.
That time is near. A little while, and we shall see the King in His
beauty. A little while, and He will wipe all tears from our eyes. A little
while, and He will present us "faultless before the presence of His glory
with exceeding joy." Jude 24.
Wherefore when He gave the signs of His coming He said, "When these
things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your
redemption draweth nigh." Luke 21:28.
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